With the release of its quarterly financial report and call Wednesday morning, Disney has been sharing information about its future with streaming. We’ve already learned that Disney will phase out Hulu and combine the service with Disney+, and that ESPN will become the streaming home of every WWE Premium Live Event. Now, we’re learning more about how Bob Iger and Disney see partnerships with other sports services fitting into the strategy.
During the August 6 quarterly call, Iger was asked about the possibility of teaming up with the Fox One app.
“We believe there may be opportunities for us to bundle other companies’ sports offerings,” Iger said. “We’ve actually had some discussions with some other companies on doing just that. Nothing to report on that. Obviously, we’re not only interested in growing engagement and growing our own subs, but we’re interested in serving consumers better as well.”
Both the new ESPN app and the Fox One app are set to launch on August 21. Fox One will cost $19.99 per month and will include the full portfolio of FOX brands including FOX News Channel, FOX Business Network, FOX Weather, FOX Sports, FS1, FS2, FOX Deportes, B1G, FOX Local Stations and the FOX Network. The ESPN app will cost $29.99 per month and will give users all of their ESPN content in one place, which includes sports played on linear channels ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, and ESPN+.
“As a devoted sports fan, I often have to work to try to find what platform sports are on. If we can help consumers in that regard, we’re certainly going to try,” Iger said.
Disney and FOX planned to partner on the streaming app Venu Sports, along with Warner Bros. Discovery, but those plans came to an end after a lawsuit from Fubo paused development of the app. Creating a bundle with the new FOX and ESPN apps could be the next best way for the companies to come together.